Film Review: Hot Fuzz (2007)
Posted on | April 20, 2010 | No Comments
Hot Fuzz (2007)
http://www.hotfuzz.com
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Judging by the cover, Hot Fuzz looks like another dumb action comedy parody, in line with such wastes of space as Loaded Weapon 1 and Epic Movie. Chances are, though, that if you’re reading this blog you’ve already found out that it’s actually awesome.
The markers for awesome are there for those in the know. It’s an Edgar Wright movie, written by Wright and star Simon Pegg, who also collaborated on Spaced and the zomcom classic Shaun of the Dead. It’s set in a quiant English village. Those two officers not looking at the explosion are not hardened L.A. cops, but scrawny Pegg and sizeable Nick Frost dressed in English police uniforms. Still… ngh. If you’re like me, “movie parody” tends to suggest toilet humour, people falling down a lot, repeating scenes from popular movies but done in funny voices, and not one laugh in the whole dreadful hour-and-a-half run.
Well, that’s not what you get here.
Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is the ultimate police officer, by the book at all times, who catches more criminals than any other officer in the force. In fact, he’s so good that he’s making all other officers look bad, and so he gets shipped off to the country as the new sergeant of Sanford village.
The reported crime rate in Stanford is so low that the local police station feels more like a social club. Everybody knows everybody and the main cause of concern is kids wearing hoodies in the town centre. Sandford is so idyllic that when people start turning up dead, Angel is the only one who suspects murder.
Wright and Pegg’s writing is rife with references to action films, as well as being self-referential to the point of obsessive. The film reads as a cavalcade of clichés that refer to no particular action film so much as to all of them, and it’s not made funny by actors making faces but by actors taking themselves entirely seriously. It’s hard to say where exactly it passes beyond clever and funny into awesome. Shortly after the credits, when Angel is stabbed by Peter Jackson dressed as Santa Claus? When Nick Frost’s Danny Butterman stops in the street in shock – “You ain’t seen Bad Boys II?” When Angel makes paperwork look badass? When action buddy film queer subtext is fully acknowledged (though stopping short of nookie)? When handguns are grabbed from a bicycle basket and the town centre becomes a Wild West style shooting range? Oh god, I can’t even choose. The film is a whole cavalcade of awesome.
I’m trying to find something to criticize, and it’s not easy. Don’t see this film if you will be upset by the sight of the following:
- gory, graphic murder scenes
- explosions
- swans
- little old ladies getting kicked in the face
- little old ladies with shotguns
- too many iconic actors and actresses to keep track of
- cussing
- horseback riding
- James Bond taking a beating
- unrealistic survival
- Oscar-winning actresses with face-masks
- creepy villagers
- really, really, I mean seriously bad rendition of Shakespeare
If that’s all right with you, seriously, give it a shot.
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Bechdel Test:
1. It has at least two female characters
2. who talk to each other
3. about something other than a man.
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